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This is a grotesque law. To charge kids with a felony for getting in a schoolyard fight, thus destroying their lives, since a felony has a huge impact on the felon’s future life, is a sign of where this country is headed. I was young once, and had a few fights, as did my friends. We got over it. Today, in Missouri, under this Orwellian law, kids face a bleak future. They can no longer be kids, no matter what age they are. If I lived in Missouri, I would decide to leave the State, but not everyone has the option to do so. Instead, parents face the prospect of their children being tried as felons for a schoolyard fight. How unreal? And unjust. Missouri needs to throw out this law. If the Legislators refuse to do so, they need to be replaced with people with common sense. – Shorty Dawkins, Editor

On January 1, 2017, the state of Missouri will implement a public school policy sure to accelerate the descent into police state dystopia.

The Hazelwood School District put out a memo to parents and guardians stating that, according to Missouri statute, fights at school or on buses will be treated as felonies — which can result in up to four years of prison, fines or probation.

“Dear Parents/Guardians:

We want to make you aware of a few new State Statutes that will go into effect on January 1, 2017, which may have a drastic impact on how incidents are handled in area school districts.

The way the new statue reads, if a person commits the offense of an assault in the third degree this will now be classified as a Class E Felony, rather than a misdemeanor. If he or she knowingly causes physical injury to another person (hits someone or has a fight with another individual and an injury occurs) – one or both participants may be charged with a Felony.”

Gone are the days when teachers broke up fights and sent the kids home, calling the parents and perhaps suspending the kid if it was a serious incident. “School Resource Officers” or local cops now arrest the kids and, if there is any perceived injury (an arbitrary judgment), will charge them with third-degree assault – treating children cooped up in school as if they are violent adults on the streets.

19 comments

If you want to develop a generation that is passive, this is the ultimate statute. Take away the child’s ability to learn “Conflict Resolution,” coupled with learning to never lift a fist to the “Bully,” and the government knows they can stomp all over the people in any manner they see fit. This is very bad!

And THIS just made me want to move OUT of missouri, i can’t even find a voting manifest on the bill that passed this crap ( s.b. 491`, 2014) so i can call up and chew out EVERY representative that voted on this! it is time to make this a front page news thing, i will be calling every news outlet, i will be blogging, emailing, whatever i can to get this whoel bill, or at least this section of, repealed.

it is Rediculous!! the states job is not to discipline children! that is the parents job!, this also violates common law, and is child trafficking under color of law!!

do not expect my name to remain Moman much longer, i will be moving out of this state soon.

i’ve also already called up one rep for a disctrict in my area. time to call all the others.

Moman,
I will be getting busy on this as well. Talk about getting blindsided! Where did this come from?
I have some friends and associates that will be able to get busy on this as well.
We have another problem brewing here in the Show-Me state. That being our new governor elect. I suspected he was up to no good since the campaign, (after learning that he was a frequent visitor to the White House during Obama’s time there), as well as seeing him participating in standing ovations at Obama’s speeches.
I think we have a Democrat pretending to be a Republican.
Add that to the fact that his campaign finances were kept so secret, (including the mysterious $2,000.000.00 that suddenly appeared in his account from nowhere), and now, he refuses to say who ANY of his appointees will be. In fact, he won’t give any interviews at all.
I give credit to any man who can get through BUD/S training. He has to have been a tough SOB, at least at one time. But that alone, I’m afraid, does not ensure that the man is honorable later in life. Nor does it automatically make him a Conservative.
Having once been a “Ninja Turtle”, now it seems he wants to be a “Secret Squirrel” as well.
Kind of a a “Super Secret Ninja Squirtle”. 😉
Just what we need after putting up with Nixon for the last several years, Governor Squirtle.
I’m going to be keeping as close an eye on him as I can also.
I would be honored to work with you on this, if we can do some good, let’s get to it brother!
FtR,
David

I read your blog, and yes the current law does show a class D and shows it as repealed in 2017.

the rediculous part here as well is a child being fined up to 10,000, that becomes the parents responsibility to pay because a child is under 18.

a school fight should not even be considered for a felony charge however, especially if both participants are using fists. it is part of school life, it happens, but usually after all is said and done, the kids are fine with each other the next day.

the fact the attorney admits there si a school to prison pipeline, is scary enough, and they say it must be broken but provides no insight as to how to do this. so maybe ask them how to proceed with breaking said pipeline in missouri.

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that there exists only one remedy for all the ills we write about on these threads day after day after day. These are ills that flow into our national bloodstream through 24/7 Cable feed, our support of corrupt financial markets and tax dollars, and Facebook https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2016/12/23/envy-at-christmastime/ We can post here all day long, but until WE cut the chord and starve the Beast, we will be here in perpetuity I’m afraid…and worse!

The statute (565) overall has specific definitions, one of which distinguishes a ‘child’ as a person 17 yrs or younger. Also, there is the word ‘may’ (be charged with a felony). I would assume or at least want to know for certain if I lived in MO, that this statute is intended only for ‘adults’ who might be charged with a felony (aka a person 18 yrs or older is considered an adult in some states). I imagine there could be 18 yr olds still in school at least until graduation.

This is an obvious ploy to rid our nation of gun owners. Think about it. They cant get their way with us so they are going after our children. Just take a look at the products of their brain washing school regulations. Any kid who gets in a childhood fight will be charged with a felony. These kids will never be able to own a firearm.
These sick monsters are targeting children in an effort to undermine our constitutional republic. What kind of a sick mind would implement such an evil thing?
Brain washing our kids in school didn’t work well enough for them. Their candidate lost. Now they are going after the kids in another way to ensure that they get their way in the future.
A good message for our children would be that if someone hits you….HIT EM BACK…!!! These people are creating a nation of wimps and they are doing it with YOUR children. Pissed off yet…???

I have seen this article in 3 different locations and am a little disappointed in the comment sections on each.

Seeing that OK links to a lot of conservative sources, I’m pretty shocked to see such opposition to this. Surely, many of you are familiar with Colin Flaherty’s youtube channel. If not, please do a search on his coverage of the non-stop, all-day every-day, brutal violence perpetrated against, not only students but teachers as well, in public schools.

When parents fail, that is the result. I see this as a move of frustration and a last resort to get that mess under control.

I understand that public schools are for indoctrination and I would urge anyone to at least get away from the inner city schools if you can’t get your kids into a private school, but please do some research before you assume school is like it was when some of us old timers went, because it is not. Sift through Colin’s channel and I believe you will realize that these are not the acts of innocent children getting into the occasional scuffle. It is a HUGE problem.

The problem is this also attacks the parents that aren’t failing that just happen to have a child get into a fight one day. these school fights happen, it is a fact of life, it is also a fact of human psychology and physiology. especially in teenage years.

this also interferes with parents rights should a school seek law enforcement intervention. it is a PARENTS job to deal with their children, NOT the states. and if a parent doesn’t, eventually the “bully” child will get their butt kicked, and it will be justifiable, and ti will do the job the parent should have done.

another reason for this opposition is because this also removes the psychological development of conflict resolution, and coping mechanisms, like no child left behind and participation trophies, these destroy children in their development stages, because they can’t cope, this is also a reason for an increase in school shootings by children. can’t cope, or resolve the issues they have going on.

stop the no child left behind, and trophy for everyone crap, that will assist with school budgets for classes like art, (yes art is an essential class for many reasons) that have been removed due to “budget” issues. if the kids get into a fight, sure break them up, call the parents and send them home, this assists development.

of course the state intervention and juvenile detention could backfire and create a bunch of adults that are extremely untrusting of government agencies and their brown boots enforcement agencies.

I understand where they are coming from because this might help the rate of bullying go down but then again think about if u was a kid in school and someone walked up and hit you in the face or is messing with you and they put their hands on you what are you going to do about it…?